Quilt Shop: Back Porch Fabrics; Pacific Grove, California

We had such a nice day in the Pacific Grove/Monterey area yesterday, and the quilt shop was quite a treat.

It's just up the street from the ocean. It was about an hour's drive to get to Pacific Grove. Once we got into the town proper, there were just a few turns, and we caught our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean.

Pacific Grove is a charming little town. Just kitty-corner from the quilt shop is a town square with a gazebo.

Just about half a block up is the quilt shop. Here's the storefront.

Just to the left of me when I took that shot was a pretty little garden.

It's located inside one of those little mini-malls. Here's the actual front door.

Step inside the front door, and this is what you see:

The woman walking toward me there was very friendly and talkative. She was asking all about our trip, and so we ended up visiting quite a bit. I was afraid she was going to tell me I couldn't take pictures, but she invited me to photograph anything, with the exception of the Gwen Marston exhibit they had in a separate room. It was a nice surprise to see so many of Gwen's quilts right up close. Here's a link to Pinterest showing some of her quilts. Some of these were on display at the quilt shop.

They had beautiful fabrics. They seemed to favor big bold prints with a more modern flare. I loved them, but I'm not sure they would be to everyone's taste.

It's not a huge store, and so I wouldn't say they had a large inventory, but what they had was lovely. The quilters in this area have an excellent resource in this store.

Some day I'm going to make a quilt with nothing but black and white. I'm always drawn to the black and white fabrics.

If I didn't already have a flamingo quilt and scraps to go with it, I'd have had me some of this.

Everything on and below this table was on sale. I found one here I liked. There were also a few books, but none that I couldn't resist.

These were all cat fabrics...like I need more cat fabric...on the other hand, can anyone ever have enough cat fabric?

Instead, I chose a yard of each of the ones I'm about to show you. This one was on sale. It seemed like something I could use in the barn quilt I'm going to make some day...if I live that long.

This one will make a pretty binding. She told me this was digitally printed, which means absolutely nothing to me, but maybe some of you know what it means.

I had everything picked out and she had already started cutting when I glanced to the left and saw this one. It was so beautiful, I needed it too. I can probably use this one in my blue jay quilt...along with the other hundreds of fabrics I've already set aside for it.

I couldn't decide which of the next two I liked best, and so I got both of them. The first one will make a nice binding. The other one...who knows?

Now this one caught my eye just because it's black and white.

When I looked closer, I noticed this:

And then I looked even closer, and realized that every "article" was about cats!

Well, obviously, I needed that. For realsies...because I really don't have any fabric at home. You know...anything could have happened while we've been gone. Someone might have come into the house and stolen my whole stash...maybe they finished all my quilts...mayyyyyybeeeeeee...well. The possibilities are endless. Enough said, I think.

Oh yes, and this was my regional print. I bought a fat quarter of this. Once I've cut out the bit for my Quilty 365, I figured I could use it in some landscape quilt.

So there you have it. Back Porch Fabrics. It was really fun to stop in, and well worth the drive. Beautiful fabrics, and a beautiful store, with very friendly employees. It doesn't get any better than that.

Today we're moving on to Petaluma, where there are more quilt shops! Yay! That's not why we're going though. We're going to see the Point Reyes National Seashore and quite a few lighthouses. We visited one lighthouse in Pacific Grove yesterday, and I'll tell you about that in a separate post. For now, it's time to get moving and get outta town. The wind has been terrible here, and we've felt as if it has held us hostage. We can't open the doors or windows, and it's kind of miserable walking around outside. Lovely park...terrible wind. Our next park is a KOA, and just looking at the pictures, we'll be among the tall trees. Miss Sadie is snoopervising the goings on outside. It's important to make sure everything is put away propurrly.